Review Insights · App Store
Upward: Dating for Christians
Affinity Apps, LLC · 156,040 ratings · ★ 4.3
4.3
★★★★★
156,040 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 82 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"people"
27 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scammers everywhere. This site there are scammers everywhere. There are no safety measures in place. I reported the same person twice and both time was told they were removed. Each time same name and same pictures. The second notice I received they were removed…" - Scam@1
2
"money"
17 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Inconvenient. Firstly, the parent company is secular. Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status. Also, there is no way t…" - gumwall
3
"away"
17 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Distance filter completely nonfunctional. Tried to submit a ticket, never heard anything. I live in a rural area so I set my distance pretty far. Usually 60-100 miles. Set to 60 (furthest option w/o choosing “max”) and I ONLY get shown people 125+ miles away. Useless filter. If the…" - KLC2026
4
"dating"
14 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Probably good if you paid for it. To much paywall. Things that most dating apps give you for free they do not. The benefit is there are a lot people on the app" - SUPERSHARK_YT
5
"miles"
14 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Distance filter completely nonfunctional. Tried to submit a ticket, never heard anything. I live in a rural area so I set my distance pretty far. Usually 60-100 miles. Set to 60 (furthest option w/o choosing “max”) and I ONLY get shown people 125+ miles away. Useless filter. If the…" - KLC2026
6
"other"
13 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Inconvenient. Firstly, the parent company is secular. Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status. Also, there is no way t…" - gumwall
7
"miles away"
13 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Distance filter completely nonfunctional. Tried to submit a ticket, never heard anything. I live in a rural area so I set my distance pretty far. Usually 60-100 miles. Set to 60 (furthest option w/o choosing “max”) and I ONLY get shown people 125+ miles away. Useless filter. If the…" - KLC2026
8
"christian"
13 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deleting, just a money grab. You can’t do anything without paying crazy amounts of money. And looking at the other reviews, I think I’m done with this app after only using it for a short time. If you are truly looking for a Christian spouse then I would avoid this one." - chadydady
9
"account"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Inconvenient. Firstly, the parent company is secular. Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status. Also, there is no way t…" - gumwall
10
"nothing"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Racist app and anti-biblical. Deleted my account for saying I want nothing to do with Esau, Jezebel or the Tares of weeds. Is only for the whitewashed slow kids, the counterfeits and frauds, the enemies of Yeshua and his FBA kings of a superior standard in the remnant c…" - jslvxd
11
"match"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don’t waste your time. Made an account this past week despite reading the bad reviews and my previous bad experiences on the app. I should have known better. Within an hour or two of creating my account I was unable to login. Figured it was a bug so I waited unti…" - Matthew Matt Matthew
12
"find"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Inconvenient. Firstly, the parent company is secular. Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status. Also, there is no way t…" - gumwall
📋 All 82 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Scammers everywhere
This site there are scammers everywhere. There are no safety measures in place. I reported the same person twice and both time was told they were removed. Each time same name and same pictures. The second notice I received they were removed I received a line from them the very next day.
Also charge extra if you to see people in the you specific area. The filter don’t work age, distance etc. only send people from long distances.
Not recommended
Also charge extra if you to see people in the you specific area. The filter don’t work age, distance etc. only send people from long distances.
Not recommended
Horrible!
This app is awful. Most of the time I can’t even log in because it keeps giving me an error message: “Oops, that did not go as expected. Please try again.” Trying again usually doesn’t work either.
Inconvenient
Firstly, the parent company is secular.
Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status.
Also, there is no way to reset your account on this app compared to, “Holy”, so if you go through all your local options there is no way to look through them again except for deleting your account, but if you bought elite status then you would have just wasted your money.
If the app added a reset feature and found another way to make money that does not involve one scrolling for hours to find one person so that they’ll buy the elite status would be improvements.
Secondly, this app is difficult to use freely, if someone likes you, you may simply never find them on your feed through scrolling, leading to having to buy, “elite” status.
Also, there is no way to reset your account on this app compared to, “Holy”, so if you go through all your local options there is no way to look through them again except for deleting your account, but if you bought elite status then you would have just wasted your money.
If the app added a reset feature and found another way to make money that does not involve one scrolling for hours to find one person so that they’ll buy the elite status would be improvements.
Don’t download. It’s a money sucking machine.
When you download the app, you pay to use premium but you will be pushed yo buy “elite” to view any messages or anyone who liked your profile. Later you will also be pushed to pay for “platinum” to be able to send messages (notes).
I don’t not recommend.
I don’t not recommend.
Racist app and anti-biblical
Deleted my account for saying I want nothing to do with Esau, Jezebel or the Tares of weeds. Is only for the whitewashed slow kids, the counterfeits and frauds, the enemies of Yeshua and his FBA kings of a superior standard in the remnant church.
Don’t waste your time
Made an account this past week despite reading the bad reviews and my previous bad experiences on the app. I should have known better. Within an hour or two of creating my account I was unable to login. Figured it was a bug so I waited until the next day and still the same issue. I reach out to customer support to see what’s going on only to find out that my account has been banned for violating “community guidelines.” I hadn’t even matched with anyone yet and all my prompts and pictures were tasteful. I responded to the email trying to see what exactly I had done to get banned and they said the matter was closed and they would no longer be respond to me. This app is only after your money and apparently if you don’t pay now they will just ban you without explanation.
Fake profiles
Do something about the fake profiles!! I’ve seen hundreds of fake men all with the same description in their bios and stolen pictures of men who look like models. I report them and nothing happens!
Don’t do it!
Don’t sign up. You have to pay for everything. You can’t see who liked you, you can’t see messages? You can’t do anything unless you PAY. Now don’t get me wrong I get it they need to profit but at lease Holy and other apps you can see messages. This is crazy, everything is about money. It has nothing to do with genuinely helping people meet and connect.
Distance filter completely nonfunctional
Tried to submit a ticket, never heard anything. I live in a rural area so I set my distance pretty far. Usually 60-100 miles. Set to 60 (furthest option w/o choosing “max”) and I ONLY get shown people 125+ miles away. Useless filter. If there’s no one in my range, show me no one like the other apps!
Deleting, just a money grab
You can’t do anything without paying crazy amounts of money. And looking at the other reviews, I think I’m done with this app after only using it for a short time. If you are truly looking for a Christian spouse then I would avoid this one.
Expensive
Didn’t know I’d have to pay upwards of 80 or more to match and talk to someone Tinder at least lets you chat
Distance Filters just don’t work
Hope you’re prepared to see all the account 500+ miles away from you because that’s the reality. Filters are terrible and just don’t work.
Too many adds
So manny adds. So. Many. Adds. And why so expensive.
250 miles away from matches
Decent app but I’m in a city of a million people and after paying and swiping for an hourish no matches for 250 miles. Total waste of money.
Can’t create
Couldn’t even create an account, kept getting an error
Disappointed
Non stop adds. Appreciate the message but can’t use the app without adds every single swipe
More AI profiles
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced more fake AI profiles in one app. And it’s always the same story. They are from overseas and have been in the states for 8 to 13 years. All of their pictures are AI or Photoshop.
Bad service
No access after registration
Don’t waste money
I know the developers had great intentions and the one star is not for their well intended app.. but Wow. I thought with the rating i was in luck. This site is worse than any dating app, why? Because ITS THE SAME AS ANY OTHER DATING APP but worse because you’re expecting to find Christians (and there are a few) but the majority are Christians still behaving like heathens. Bot accounts. Fake profiles. Literally from the beginning my for you section was all people complaining about the site or complaining about dating. Wow. I’m glad I don’t waste any money. I will still to waiting on God to send me the person not seek him out. Lesson learned
DO NOT GET
Horrible. Scam. Makes you pay for absolutely no filters. DO NOT PAY ON THIS APP
One of the worst dating apps.
On other dating app, you may not get great quality people but at least you’ll match people. Upward uses the disguise of a Christian dating app to give you advertisements for Match.com or upgrades several times per minute. Plus, almost everything is behind a pay wall. I’ve used almost every app, this one is among the worst.
This app is so wrong…
I’m looking for my future husband. The one that I like doesn’t talk to me or lives too far.🤷🏾♀️
Cost
In order to get the elite version, you guys say it’s $71.99 for six months at $6 a month. $6 a month for six months it’s $36. You guys are lying to Christians on a Christian dating app how can you justify that?
Nobody Near
This app lets you set a distance to search for people from your location in the preferences but then proceeds to show everyone who is a million miles away from you. I live in one of the most populated cities in Texas. Either nobody in Austin uses this app or this app is just horrible at filtering with its distance parameters.
App simply doesn’t work
I got the app on Monday and it worked fine. I made an account and everything seemed to be normal. The past three days I’ve been signed out and I have been unable to sign back in. I’m no longer even attempting to use this broken app.
BS with a paywall
Can’t do anything but look at profiles without paying for a subscription.
Started decent but…
I did a month subscription and met some cool people. I took a break and renewed a couple months later. I have gotten zero likes since renewing. I got tons before. And there seems to be no way to contact them to fix whatever the issue is. So, I completely wasted money. There’s also definitely a lot of catfishing. They should require users to get verified to be on the app.
Worst Dating App I’ve Tried
The vast majority of the people on the app are beyond the pale. Ignorant, delusional and creepy. I’m Christian and fairly devout, but the I find the cringy, fundamentalist nonsense most are posting to be very disturbing. Wow. If you are halfway sane or educated, please avoid this app.
Never see people close by
You’ll maybe see 3 people a day that are actually in your search area, and that’s if you’re lucky. you’ll be seeing people hundreds of miles away. I know because I matched with someone only after I switched to the social tab instead of dating. They were well within my search area. It says it will prioritize showing you profiles in your area first but that’s obviously not true
Disappointed
Disappointing to make your account, with 0 steps or explanations on how to use or navigate the app, only to realize you can’t do ANYthing except swipe left and right unless you buy a subscription. Which I did, and then it still didn’t let me do anything until I upgraded to the more expensive subscription than I had already bought. /:
Well meh
Can’t find a match in area, girls seem too perfect not even a free trial period to see how it is.
No help
I can’t even get on it because I can’t upload a photo, and no customer service. So stupid.
Full of scammers
This app seems to lack moderation and lacks the ability to report accounts after they unmatch you so scammers use that to take advantage of you. Until this app lets you report people who unmatched you it will be full of scammers. Be careful of what you send and who you talk to if you download this app.
Thought I’d meet a quality relationship
Thought I’d meet a quality relationship and had some matches but she kept wanting to give me a call and said she had feelings for me before meeting me, this left me feeling really troubled and deleting the app don’t recommend
Matches Too Far Away
Seems like a good app, but every potential match has been over 100 miles away. I have my parameters set for closer but nothing changes. Paid way too much for bad quality.
App need fixing
Every potential match is 150+ miles away. I reset it to 60 miles and then it shows me people 300 miles away. Pretty much useless. I don’t live in the middle of nowhere either.
Terrible customer service
Got banned and do not know why. They refuse to tell me the reason.
Terrible
There are many fake profiles. The distance feature isn’t functioning properly. Even when you set a 30-mile range from your location, it still shows profiles that are much farther away.
Distance filters don’t work
This app keeps showing people hundreds of miles away even though I have distance filters on. It’s like they want to keep you single as long as possible so that they can put ads in front of your face.
Scam
They collect female photos and then don’t allow you access so they can use your Photos to get men to sign up. Everyone that I’ve talked to that is used this has said they’ve had nothing but problems being locked out of their account. I don’t see how any of these good reviews are real. Customer service is awful. You get zero help and only computer generalized responses. And I’ve kept all of my emails because if my photos are still up. Because they are associated with match.com. There will be a lawsuit if my photos are still up.
Options
There should be an option to sort by race / nationality
Don’t recommend it
This app is cool, just do the free version. The basic plan is not as good as they mark it. Yes you get a lot of likes, it starts from 20miles-70miles after a few likes, Then matches are far away. An endless like of about 300-400miles radius..
Do Not Pay
This platform is a money generator for Match group. Hinge is less expensive and way better. I ran out of people in my area almost immediately. You also cannot search other cities, maybe if you pay for the “Platinum” plan. Don’t waste any money on this app.
Same rebranded money grab
Not only do they come at you like a crack head for money the distance setting is an absolute joke. Set to 40miles and scroll nothing but 400 miles.
Stop trying to open my Indeed
Either this app or an ad this app allows launched my Indeed app and tries to replace my resume. It sounds crazy but it has happened every single release about once a week. I think it’s one of their ads that has the malicious code as it seems like an ad is sliding up and then my indeed app auto opens and says there was an error tying to replace my resume. Either Upward is doing something very malicious or there is malicious code in the ad framework they use and they are not vetting one of their pop up ads. Fix this security hole now!! Your app shouldn’t not allow access to other apps. As a mobile engineer, I can assure you this is a serious issue.
Sextortion Scams/Fake Accounts
I fell victim to an account on here giving me her phone number then trading images and then threatening to send those images to my family if I didn’t pay them. Also tons of accounts in other countries and lots of accounts matching but never responding to messages.
A scam
I signed up and next day wanted to cancel my subscription, due to a scam with people on there. Fake accounts and profiles, also customer service is the worst, only via email and they do not refund. I wanted to switch to a month only subscription. Customer service does not respond. Will file a claim through my credit card company. The worst dating app experience.
Have to pay to see any likes
I’ve only used Upward and Hinge, so I’m only comparing it to Hinge, but I think it is not okay that it will not show who liked you unless you pay their exorbitant monthly fees, they offer a $7.99 option but you only can reveal 3 likes and you don’t get to pick which ones.
I’ve also noticed that whenever I’m paying for the app I get a lot less likes than when I don’t pay, which makes me thing they’re doing it intentionally.
Hinge doesn’t charge for likes but charges for other things like limiting the number of likes you can give, I’d rather have a cap on things like that and be able to see my likes.
I just think it is unholy that Upward is forcing you to pay high prices to have any chance of finding love on their app, and the app isn’t actually made or run by like-minded Christians.
I’ve also noticed that whenever I’m paying for the app I get a lot less likes than when I don’t pay, which makes me thing they’re doing it intentionally.
Hinge doesn’t charge for likes but charges for other things like limiting the number of likes you can give, I’d rather have a cap on things like that and be able to see my likes.
I just think it is unholy that Upward is forcing you to pay high prices to have any chance of finding love on their app, and the app isn’t actually made or run by like-minded Christians.
No Free Filter Options
Great in theory but I should not have to pay to filter by age and location. That alone makes this app unpleasant to use.
Terrible app and support
One of the worst apps ever. Derreck is a bully in customer support. They even pay “fluffer girls” which are fake profiles of pretty girls to match in order to boost engagement. A sick and twisted ploy to keep people hooked to dating apps. What would you expect from a secular company running a Christian dating app.
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Sentiment summary
82%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
11%
Negative (1-2★)